Do I risk it or do I take out Insurance?

Today the pressure on our purse at home is possibly greater than it’s been in living memory. Fuel prices are going up caused by the rich countries wanting more riches and the Government endeavouring to balance the books in a very short space of time after the excess spending of previous administrations trying to ensure the poorer souls who don’t , or won’t, work, can still afford their forty-two inch plasma TV with SKY Sports. But let’s not get into politics!

As we said previously the pressures on our personal finances are growing so we always think, should we bother with insurance for the contents of our house as well as the re-building costs? If you have a mortgage then you really won’t have an option – the mortgager forces you to do this as a condition of the lending arrangement. On contents-insurance: we are surprised when we actually sit down and list everything we have – alright the value of each item is not what we paid for it originally, but the price to replace it with its equivalent is acceptable for individual bits and pieces, but altogether – it is way outside most people’s credit limit. That is why we search for the protection from those who can pay out in the event of our private catastrophe.

We hope it never happens. It does. Nearly every month the television news reports on where there’s been a gas leak which has resulted in the devastation of some older property. The old folks don’t know where to turn and have to rely on friends, neighbours and family to see them through the months of recapturing their normal life. For those who have covered this eventuality with a policy they are quickly helped by the professionals who deal with it as part of their day-to-day employment. They will arrange for inspectors, valuation experts and the like to take stock of what’s required then put the plan into action to restore the building to habitable conditions and then finance the acquisition of goods and chattels.

For the risk takers they have to do it all themselves with little assistance from other than their closest circle of relations. Devastating!

In business hopefully the management team have employed the skills of a Risk Manager. He will identify all the firm’s assets – and these are not just bricks and mortar and capitalised equipment, but the company’s data, the customers, the suppliers, members of staff and crucially their intellectual properties. Each asset has a number of threats that could potentially damage the operation of the business’s daily operations. By identifying each threat, its likelihood, its severity, how much of the business it will affect and the recovery period – a score can be computed. Low scores will be accepted, Medium – thought about – but high ones must be dealt with by changes to procedures, providing back-ups, or by insuring they don’t occur by taking appropriate actions.

Just consider if your phone systems fail. MD’s will initially say – we’ll survive by using our mobiles – it is OK for a few hours but your clientele become very worried when they ring and there is no answer – they probably believe the worst – that you’ve go out of business. Getting phone systems fixed may be a simple as calling your contracted maintainer, but if you have taken a chance and have no contract in place – it could be days before you locate a phone systems dealership to send out an engineer with the right parts and skill to fix it.

The lesson to be learned in all this is that risk-taking is a risky business. Occasionally you come up smelling of roses. More frequently is seems you end up with egg all over your face.

By planning for all eventualities you do rehearse for what to do when the inevitable transpires. At Telephone Systems Direct we have a vested interest for you to protect your communications including your phone systems. Talk to us about it!